Soda
Listen To The Kids!
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I don't think he is. I think Marion is going to be 0 and Delly 9. Don't know what Love is wearing.
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Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine
- Thread starter Jack Brickman
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I don't think he is. I think Marion is going to be 0 and Delly 9. Don't know what Love is wearing.
It says in the press release. Is it possible Griff is fucking with Marion?
AuxiliaryPie
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Love's wearing 0
Meticode
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What's Greg Oden doing front and center there? Is he a Cav too?
mhi
From the thrill of victory To the agony of defeat
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Trade Grades: Cavs get all the love
Breaking down Kevin Love deal for Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia
Updated: August 23, 2014, 3:32 PM ET
By Kevin Pelton | ESPN Insider
The deal
Cleveland Cavaliers get: Forward Kevin Love
Minnesota Timberwolves get: Guard/forward Andrew Wiggins, forward Anthony Bennett, forward Thaddeus Young and a $6.3 million trade exception.
Philadelphia 76ers get: Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Alexey Shved, a future first-round pick (Miami's 2015 protected first-round pick)
Cleveland: A
The history of trades involving superstars is clear: The team getting the star almost always wins. This particular trade is somewhat unique because of the quality of the player heading the other direction. In Wiggins, the Cavaliers are giving up the No. 1 pick in what was considered a loaded draft, a player our Chad Ford called one of the 10 best draft prospects of the past 15 years. Andthis deal should still be a steal for Cleveland.
It was easy to fall in love with the idea of Wiggins growing into the role of LeBron James' sidekick on the wing, taking the tougher defensive assignment and burning teams that put their best defender on James. But the timing wasn't quite right. Based on his translated college stats, Wiggins doesn't figure to be an immediate help on offense. If Wiggins ever does become a Scottie Pippen-type player -- and his performance at Kansas raised serious doubts about his potential to create his own offense at a star level -- it won't be until James is well into his 30s.
The Cavaliers' window to win is now, while James is the league's best player, and Love's versatility makes him one of the best possible offensive complements for the four-time MVP. Further, it's hardly like Cleveland is sacrificing its future by dealing for a 25-year-old player. Health aside, Love is a sure thing, which is something that can't be said of Wiggins. That's why I estimated earlier this offseason that Love's trade value -- the value of his performance minus his likely salary -- was far greater than the value of the typical No. 1 pick.
There is an important caveat to that analysis: It assumes that Love re-signs with the Cavaliers, which isn't yet a sure thing. The risk Cleveland is taking here is that things unexpectedly go south and this becomes a repeat of one of the few trades for a superstar gone bust in recent years: Dwight Howard to the L.A. Lakers. In that scenario, giving up Wiggins would be a disaster for the Cavaliers.
Love must hit free agency rather than signing a contract extension to maximize his salary, and it doesn't appear he'll opt in to the final season of his contract (2015-16) as part of the trade, which would have given Cleveland some more comfort and certainty about keeping him. Still, the odds of Love leaving a team that has James appear long, and this is a small risk the Cavaliers absolutely should have taken.
Beyond Wiggins, Cleveland sacrificed relatively little. The Cavaliers still have their 2015 first-round pick, as well as one on the way from the Memphis Grizzlies at some point in the future.
As for Bennett, it's unclear whether he's an asset or a liability in this trade. The issue is Bennett's salary, which is $5.5 million this season and $5.8 million in 2015-16 (a team option) before jumping to $7.3 million in 2016-17, another team option that must be picked up by the end of October 2015. To justify midlevel money or better, Bennett will have to improve massively from his below-replacement play as a rookie. His college play and a solid performance in this year's NBA Summer League offer reasons for hope, but it's far from certain Bennett will play out his rookie contract.
And that's it. Cleveland didn't have to take back any salary or give up any of the nonguaranteed contracts acquired in a trade with the Utah Jazz last month, giving general manager David Griffin some trade options as the Cavaliers continue to fill out their roster and search for the rim protection and perimeter defense they're currently lacking. As a result, this trade looks great for Cleveland.
Minnesota: B-
The first way to analyze this trade is to decide whether it makes the Timberwolves a better team going forward, and the answer is it does. If Minnesota had a chance to retain Love with a playoff run, keeping him was the right idea. But the relationship between player and team seemed to deteriorate beyond repair this summer. Failing that, there's no way one year with Love, which might have resulted in a playoff berth but would not have guaranteed one, is worth more than four years of Wiggins' rookie contract plus his rights thereafter.
The second way to analyze this trade is whether it's the best the Timberwolves could have made, and that's a bit trickier. A deal centered on Wiggins is the best package Minnesota could have gotten because of the aforementioned rookie contract. A David Lee-Klay Thompson trade would have given the Timberwolves just one year of Thompson's rookie deal before he gets a huge raise -- likely to the point of overpaying -- and while the Chicago Bulls might have been able to offer more total talent, they couldn't match the long-term upside of Wiggins.
Ultimately, it doesn't appear Flip Saunders could credibly leverage the threat of other offers into Cleveland concessions beyond Wiggins. This incarnation of the trade doesn't save Minnesota any money and gives it no draft picks.
What are left are two Timberwolves teams. There's the youngsters: Wiggins, Bennett, first-round pick Zach LaVine, and 2013 first-round picks Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng. There's also an older core built of players such as Kevin Martin (31 years old) and Nikola Pekovic (28) built to win now. Though Young (26) is closer in age to Dieng (24) than Martin and Pekovic, his salary and possible free agency next summer put him in the latter group.
Understandably, there's not much of an appetite for rebuilding in Minnesota, home of the longest playoff drought in the NBA (a decade and counting). And Saunders didn't name himself head coach just to develop young talent. Alas, wanting to make the playoffs isn't enough, especially in the Western Conference. The West is too strong and the drop from Love to Young is too severe for a run at the eighth seed to be more than a long shot.
When the Timberwolves realize they can't compete, they'll find it difficult to get value for the veterans who make little sense on a rebuilding roster. Martin has three years and more than $21 million left on his contract, while Pekovic is owed nearly $48 million over the next four years. Minnesota has a better chance of landing a pick for Young, if not necessarily a first-rounder as good as the the team might regret sending to Philadelphia.
The Timberwolves don't need to completely tear it down. They do need to make sure their young players have enough opportunity that Minnesota can figure out what it has beyond Wiggins and point guard Ricky Rubio. This is clearly an entertaining group of young talent, albeit one with more questions than answers about its future -- especially in the case of Bennett. But that was inevitably the case as the Timberwolves move on from Love.
Philadelphia: B+
After getting little value for Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner at last year's trade deadline, Sam Hinkie didn't wait as long to make a move with this year's potential free agent. Young, who can opt out of the final season of his contract (scheduled to pay him $9.9 million) next summer, was the last key player left from the pre-Hinkie Sixers, making the teardown of the roster complete.
Young is a better player than Hawes and Turner, and I'm surprised no contender was more aggressive in making a move for him. But Philadelphia still managed to get two interesting pieces in return. Miami's 2015 first-round pick is top-10 protected, meaning there's an outside shot that if the Heat just miss the playoffs, the Sixers could get a late lottery selection. That's certainly a possibility depending on Dwyane Wade's health and just how many of Miami's weaknesses James was really covering up.
For all the issues I outlined with Bennett earlier, he would have been a perfect fit for a Philadelphia team that needn't worry about the salary cap for years. So this trade looked better when we thought the Sixers were getting Bennett instead of the expiring contracts of Mbah a Moute and Shved. The former will be valuable to Philadelphia primarily as a veteran mentor for fellow Cameroonian Joel Embiid. At 25, with a solid international track record, Shved does offer a bit of upside. However, he's gone backward during two seasons in the NBA. Even if Shved does break out for the Sixers, they'd have to pay him as a restricted free agent next summer, making him less useful than a player on a rookie contract.
Replacing the productive Young with -- well, I'm not exactly sure who's going to get those minutes -- means Philadelphia is likely to be no better than last season, even with the addition ofNerlens Noel and development of young players. With Embiid and Dario Saric waiting in the wings, along with another top lottery pick in the 2015 NBA draft, there's hope for the Sixers' future. But getting there is going to entail suffering through at least one more season as a laughingstock, and the 76ers can't count on the good luck in close games that helped them win 19 games in 2013-14.
mhi
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There was 3. And the third is about MIN's rebuild
LeBron + Love should = speed
David Blatt & Co. would be wise to emulate up-tempo Spurs and Nash-era Suns
Originally Published: August 22, 2014
By David Thorpe | ESPN Insider
Old Cavaliers
When the Cavaliers hired David Blatt they were one of the youngest teams in the league, but not anymore.
Tags: NBA, LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Ray Allen, Shawn Marion, Mike Miller
Projecting how the Cleveland Cavaliers should play with Kevin Love alongside LeBron James is not a challenge, at least on the surface.
We're talking about the world's best player at one forward spot, with arguably the best rebounding/deep-shooting big man ever to play the game at the other forward position. Whatcan't they do, especially when factoring in a great shooter/scorer at point guard in Kyrie Irving? But the question for coach David Blatt is not "what style best suits our talent?" but rather "what style best suits this roster while also matching up better against our top competitors?"
There are many variables to consider, and the reality is that teams can and do adjust their styles as the season evolves, something Blatt proved to be a master of in Europe. In theory, though, unless the Cavs can suddenly add a lot more size to this roster (size that can play), there really is a pretty basic formula if they want to have a great chance at a ring: Run (fast), shoot (often), and pass, pass, pass.
This is not a new way to play the game, as we only have to look at how the San Antonio Spursdismantled the Miami Heat to see how effective this style can be. The great irony in the NBA is that the Spurs' brand is about defense and toughness -- thanks to their titles in the 2000s that resulted from playing this way -- but in reality their offense has more closely resembled the "7-Seconds-or-Less" version from the great Steve Nash teams in Phoenix, the most exciting offenses we have seen in more than a decade. The Spurs did not play quite as fast as the Suns did overall, but that was mostly due to not being as devoted to quick shots in transition as consistently as Phoenix was.
Both teams thrived, though, by constantly applying offensive pressure, putting the ball in the hands of the player who was in position to be a threat. This gave defenders very little time to think, adjust or anticipate. It also gave them little time to rest. On a team featuring James, Love, Irving and Anderson Varejao in the starting unit, this style can be incredibly successful.
Offensive options
We don't yet know who will be starting at shooting guard for the Cavaliers, though it makes sense that they will want someone who can shoot the 3. With that in place, the Cavs' offense will feature four players who can make 3s at a high percentage -- in and of itself making them a formidable offense even with just a "good" small forward.
The bigger keys are the passing skills of James (perhaps the best passing small forward of all time), the very good passing skills of Love (especially half court) and the almost elite-level passing skill that Varejao has, with him possibly being the third-best passing center in the NBA behind Joakim Noah and Marc Gasol. The Cavs could start a group with three great passers (at a minimum), four great shooters and at least three great scorers (Irving, Love, James), all with the best playmaker in the game to create shots when needed. The only way to slow them down is if they choose to do that on their own. Problems could come if they run isolation actions, stationary dribbles and slow-developing post-ups where every defender knows what is coming; in short, the Cavs will still be a good offense if they play this way, but they won't be nearly as elite.
Instead, a splendid blend of some kind of initial action (i.e., pinch-post handoff, ball-screen action, pin down, etc.) will lead to ball movement until there is a big crease to attack via dribble or pass. This will constantly have a defense on its heels -- especially if the shooters take open 3s every chance they get, forcing opponents to extend their defense out, thereby leaving openings closer to the basket.
Passing up open shots (when the man with the ball is a good-to-great shooter) slows the offense down and gives the defense chances to recover. The Cavaliers can have the league's best offense if they give everyone the green light (minus Varejao) to take open shots from behind the line.
Anthony Gruppuso/USA TODAY SportsAnderson Varejao's ability to pass and run the floor will open things up for the Cavs.
James' talent and mindset to get the best shot available for anyone plays perfectly in this kind of offense. To be sure, Blatt will be giving up some control by playing this way, but having the game's best (and maybe smartest) primary ball handler on the court makes up for it. James' overall basketball IQ factors in huge here, as he was smart when he entered the league but has now played in four straight Finals. His feel for when to push, when to shoot, whom to create for, and what can work best against any defense on the fly makes him like a coach on the court. As long as all of the players buy into quickly moving the ball from weapon to weapon -- while looking for quick attacks into open gaps or open shots from their top shooters -- both James and Blatt should have an easy time on that end of the court.
The Love effect
Love's contribution in the half-court game cannot be understated. He can be a strong post-up scorer. He is deadly at pick-and-pop action. Using him as a pinch-post weapon as a scorer or passer will be very effective as well, as will spacing him out to drag the opponent's best shot-blocker (when matched up with him) away from the rim. Last season in Minnesota, Love andKevin Martin ran an effective two-man game on the perimeter, where Martin would pass to Love behind the line and then run toward him. If the defender followed Martin, he'd take the handoff and attack; if the perimeter defender took a deeper path toward the rim, Martin would slip in front of Love's man and screen him, giving Love the open look from 3-point range. That same action, with James instead of Martin, will be even more effective -- maybe even the best two-man action in the game.
Another featured set will see Love in the pinch post with James in the same side corner, with the rest of the Cavs on the other side. When Love gets the catch, he'll turn and look at James immediately. If the defender stays low on James, James can race forward and take the handoff from Love; if that defender rushes up the floor to defend, then James will make a quick backdoor cut. And if the defender plays James "straight up," then he can slice-cut over the defender and take the quick pass from Love as he moves into the paint. This is a devastating sequence of actions to defend.
Of course, James always can just slip into the post for some quick high-low action, the kind of short spacing from post-to-post that prevents defenses from being able to get help inside fast enough (especially if two of those three players not involved in the action are 3-point threats). We all know how James will help Love and Irving get their points, but Love will help them as well, far more than people realize.
It's the full-court game where Love can have the most impact. His outlet passes are legendary, and deservedly so. Corey Brewer is every bit as fast as James, and he led the league in transition points last season, mostly thanks to those passes from Love. James, though, is a better finisher at the rim than Brewer, and better at drawing fouls.
Love's incredible rebounding talent also suggests that Varejao, along with James, can often release early and race down the court. Nikola Pekovic was a devastating offensive rebounder last season due not just to his incredible strength, but also his willingness to run and seal, waiting for a teammate to take a quick shot (Minnesota played at the fourth-fastest pace and tied for sixth in offensive rebound rate). Varejao can have an increased role in this manner, with his four starting teammates helping to keep the paint clear in the half court and with his ability to run in their fast-break game. Yes, James will expend some energy running more, but he will save even more by absorbing less of a pounding and by having to do less in the offense because other guys are getting quick buckets. He can also choose to let Irving race out with the others when Love rebounds, thus playing the point if the long outlet is not there and getting into some delayed or "drag screen" action with the trailing Love (much like Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire did to great effect).
Outlook
The Cavs will need to add some athletes to play alongside Mike Miller and James Jones, but if they do, this team will be capable of playing a style very similar to that of the current Spurs and Nash-era Suns. More possessions in a game often heavily favors the more talented team, if that squad is coached right. Blatt is an elite coach, so there should be no problem.
Having great shooters combined with great passers, the world's best player (and possibly its best athlete), and one of the top rebounders the game has ever seen gives the Cavs a multitude of offensive options. The key will be just how fast they choose to play. The Spurs looked like surgeons during much of the 2014 NBA playoffs. And they are champions now. The Suns had the "sexiest" team in pro sports during a large stretch of the 2000s, routinely winning 50-plus games and doing so in fun fashion.
This Cleveland team could very well have more offensive talent than either of those squads and could end up being just as effective or better -- only if it doesn't give defenders a chance to breathe.
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Windhorst on the Love saga
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The Cavaliers' Kevin Love plan
Cleveland used long-term planning and good fortune to land the All-Star big man
Originally Published: August 23, 2014
By Brian Windhorst | ESPN.com
It was late last March, as a bad Cleveland winter drifted into spring, a frigid wind whipped snow outside the Cavaliers' suburban practice facility.
Inside, the talk was of the team's most recent nosedive. Owner Dan Gilbert had identified the season as when the team would take the step of making the playoffs but it wasn't happening. The team had stumbled through the first 15 games after making a trade deadline deal for Spencer Hawes, losing 11 of them. It was the last attempt at a midseason-course correction, which included a trade for Luol Deng that hadn't panned out, and the Cavs crashed to 18 games under .500.
Nobody was feeling good. The interim general manager, David Griffin, was unsure he'd keep the job. Coach Mike Brown was starting to fear, rightly, he was going to be fired just one season in. Gilbert's patience had long since frayed and he was growing only more restless by the day.
It was at this low point -- in some ways a deeper depth than that 26-game losing streak back in 2010-11, because this team had real expectations -- that the Cavs' front office huddled to consider what was, on the face of it, a ridiculous plan.
They were going to try to trade for Kevin Love.
Or, more accurately, they were going to try harder to trade for him. It was no secret Love was the next domino to fall in the disgruntled-stars-who-want-out market, following in the tradition of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.
The Cavs were on the list of teams checking regularly with the Wolves to see if Minnesota had come to terms with what most felt was inevitable from the day Love didn't get the contract extension he wanted in 2011.
The Cavs knew, sheepishly, that they were going to be back in the lottery for the fourth straight year. The humiliation, however, came with a lottery pick the Timberwolves might want. So they began to plot more aggressive packages to offer Minnesota.
Love was worth a lot. Getting Love, the Cavs believed, would do no less than pave the way for the return of LeBron James in free agency a few months later. And they were going to try to trade for him without using Kyrie Irving, their prized young All-Star and best trade asset, in the deal.
This would be their big three: Irving and then Love and then, so the plan went, James.
Now, with a month until the start of training camp, the Cavs have James. They still have Irving. And, after completing their long-planned deal on Aug. 23, they have Love.
The Cavs can pinch themselves all they want, they have pulled it off. But that's not to say it went precisely as planned.
Of course, there was no chance of it happening without long-term planning. Saying it was just luck is a disservice to the Cavs' ability to close some big deals, but there was no chance of it happening without several huge swings of fortune.
Essentially, five factors came together in a unique way that made it possible. Some of them were on the Cavs' dry-erase boards when they came to grips with their reality last spring. Some of them were unpredictable. But the sequence and timing ended up giving the Cavs one of the most dramatic and effective offseasons in league history.
Assets
In 2010, after James walked out on the Cavs, they were so shell-shocked and unprepared that it took them a calendar year to even begin to recover. But one thing they did from Day 1 -- literally the first day after James' decision -- was realize they had to get draft picks. They had only three first-round picks over the previous six years. So when they begrudgingly traded James to Miami they insisted on two first-round picks back. They kept going from there, without fully knowing what they'd do with them.
Over the next three years, then-general manager Chris Grant traded for six first-round picks, five second-round picks and two pick swaps. Also, despite some temptation, the Cavs mostly refrained from offering big free-agent deals, and the few free agents they signed mostly were on short contracts.
The result was some bad teams, a combined 97-215 record over the past four seasons. But they did have a fairly clear salary cap, a roster stocked with young prospects on cheap contracts and a load of future draft picks to use in trades, including what ended up being the top overall pick in the Andrew Wiggins draft.
The lottery
The Cavs won the 2011 lottery with a 2.8 percent chance on a pick they got in a deadline-day deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. In 2013, they won with their pick when it had a 15.6 percent chance. In 2014, their pick won again with a 1.7 percent chance. What is the math on that? About a 0.05 percent to win all three or, put another way, about one chance in 1,900.
That's how they ended up with not only Kyrie Irving, but also Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, the heart of the deal that finally got the Wolves to relent on trading Love.
Just for perspective, add in winning the 2003 lottery when they drafted James with a 22.5 percent chance at the top pick, and the Cavs won the lottery four times in 12 years. The odds were 0.01 percent of the Cavs winning those four lotteries with the odds they were given. One hundredth of a percent.
Luck indeed.
The fall of the Heat
Within days of James' decision to sign with the Cavs the rumors of long-term conspiracies started popping up, especially in whispers out of Miami. As for James' intention to play for the Cavs again some day, that one was right out in the open. But the "when" part quickly became a debate.
However, it could have been no debate at all. Had the Heat won the NBA Finals to become one of the historic teams to three-peat, there is almost no doubt James would have returned for at least another season to attempt to win four in a row. Not to mention there's no sensible reason for a star player to walk away from the chance to defend a title; the historically conscious James never would've passed up a chance to do something that hadn't been done since Bill Russell and a feat neither Michael Jordan nor Kobe Bryant pulled off.
When the Heat and San Antonio Spurs were tied 1-1 in the NBA Finals and Miami had homecourt advantage heading into Game 3, the Cavs' dream scenario looked rather shaky. Especially with talks with the Wolves gaining no traction despite their No. 1 overall pick being in play.
Then the Spurs turned it on and the Heat withered as the Finals fizzled for Miami. When it was over so was the Heat's time as champs, and James, with free agency suddenly upon him, had a legitimate reason to consider other options.
Other suitors backed off
In theory, the Cavs could've made this same trade with the Wolves in June but they didn't. The reason: This exact deal wasn't being offered. The Cavs badly wanted to get Love in the fold by July 1 to help with pitching James on a return to Cleveland. But offering the past two No. 1 overall picks and a future first-rounder for Love, a player who could leave via free agency in a year, was light on guarantees. So the talks around the draft died.
In all, more than 12 teams reached out to the Wolves to make some sort of offer for Love. Some were non-starters, some were legit. The Golden State Warriors got the closest and could've removed the Cavs from the equation before they ever were able to make their best offer. But the Warriors and Wolves couldn't find a deal and neither could anyone else, buying the Cavs what turned out to be some extremely valuable time.
The James contract
In the hours after James released his letter to announce his return to Cleveland there was euphoria and insanity in the Cavs' offices. So many people called trying to buy tickets and sponsorships that the entire phone system crashed. James' agents, Rich Paul and Mark Termini, had trouble getting through just to start the process of negotiating the contract and it had to be hammered out using cell phones.
Ultimately, the process was short. James could name his terms. It was one year at the maximum salary followed by an option year at the max salary. This was unexpected -- the Cavs were thinking James would sign for longer, but they were willing to give him his terms. They had no problem paying him as much as possible and if doing it this way helped him get more money they were fine with it and willing to trust him.
By that Friday afternoon the paperwork was on its way to Florida to be signed by James before he took off for a promotional trip to Brazil for Nike.
Before that weekend, the Cavs had been reluctant to offer the rights to Wiggins in a deal for Love. While they offered packages involving the pick prior to the draft, they were excited about Wiggins after drafting him. They saw him as a wing with good defensive instincts they could pair with James if they got James in free agency.
If Love wanted to play with James, as had been communicated to the Cavs through various channels, the Cavs felt like they could wait for their dream big three and figure out a way to add Love via free agency in 2015. But with James only technically committed for one season and with his desire to play with Love as soon as possible made clear to the team, the priorities had changed quickly.
By the time James was back in the U.S. following a weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Wiggins had been put on the table. Within just a few days, a meeting between Love, Gilbert and other Cavs officials had been arranged with the permission of the Wolves. It was communicated that Love would not sign an extension or pick up his option for next season following a trade to the Cavs but that he was committed to playing alongside James for the long term.
Shortly thereafter the parameters of the deal for Love were essentially in place after talks that involved Gilbert and Wolves owner Glen Taylor. The Cavs had the pieces the Wolves wanted or were at least willing to take in a forced trade. Gilbert and the Cavs badly wanted to complete their big three and felt now was the time, making them willing to give just about anything if it didn't include Irving. James' strong statement with his contract and private talks to win over Love proved to be the final grease to the skids.
Everyone just had to wait for Wiggins to be eligible to be traded, 30 days after he signed his contract, even though he effectively had been traded before officially signing with the Cavs.
It has long been said that chance favors the prepared. Add these events to that file. The Cavs were prepared and received a remarkable string of fortunate events, none of which overshadowed that the best player in the league was born just down the road.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11386670/how-cleveland-cavaliers-landed-kevin-love
----
The Cavaliers' Kevin Love plan
Cleveland used long-term planning and good fortune to land the All-Star big man
Originally Published: August 23, 2014
By Brian Windhorst | ESPN.com
It was late last March, as a bad Cleveland winter drifted into spring, a frigid wind whipped snow outside the Cavaliers' suburban practice facility.
Inside, the talk was of the team's most recent nosedive. Owner Dan Gilbert had identified the season as when the team would take the step of making the playoffs but it wasn't happening. The team had stumbled through the first 15 games after making a trade deadline deal for Spencer Hawes, losing 11 of them. It was the last attempt at a midseason-course correction, which included a trade for Luol Deng that hadn't panned out, and the Cavs crashed to 18 games under .500.
Nobody was feeling good. The interim general manager, David Griffin, was unsure he'd keep the job. Coach Mike Brown was starting to fear, rightly, he was going to be fired just one season in. Gilbert's patience had long since frayed and he was growing only more restless by the day.
It was at this low point -- in some ways a deeper depth than that 26-game losing streak back in 2010-11, because this team had real expectations -- that the Cavs' front office huddled to consider what was, on the face of it, a ridiculous plan.
They were going to try to trade for Kevin Love.
Or, more accurately, they were going to try harder to trade for him. It was no secret Love was the next domino to fall in the disgruntled-stars-who-want-out market, following in the tradition of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.
The Cavs were on the list of teams checking regularly with the Wolves to see if Minnesota had come to terms with what most felt was inevitable from the day Love didn't get the contract extension he wanted in 2011.
The Cavs knew, sheepishly, that they were going to be back in the lottery for the fourth straight year. The humiliation, however, came with a lottery pick the Timberwolves might want. So they began to plot more aggressive packages to offer Minnesota.
Love was worth a lot. Getting Love, the Cavs believed, would do no less than pave the way for the return of LeBron James in free agency a few months later. And they were going to try to trade for him without using Kyrie Irving, their prized young All-Star and best trade asset, in the deal.
This would be their big three: Irving and then Love and then, so the plan went, James.
Now, with a month until the start of training camp, the Cavs have James. They still have Irving. And, after completing their long-planned deal on Aug. 23, they have Love.
The Cavs can pinch themselves all they want, they have pulled it off. But that's not to say it went precisely as planned.
Of course, there was no chance of it happening without long-term planning. Saying it was just luck is a disservice to the Cavs' ability to close some big deals, but there was no chance of it happening without several huge swings of fortune.
Essentially, five factors came together in a unique way that made it possible. Some of them were on the Cavs' dry-erase boards when they came to grips with their reality last spring. Some of them were unpredictable. But the sequence and timing ended up giving the Cavs one of the most dramatic and effective offseasons in league history.
Assets
In 2010, after James walked out on the Cavs, they were so shell-shocked and unprepared that it took them a calendar year to even begin to recover. But one thing they did from Day 1 -- literally the first day after James' decision -- was realize they had to get draft picks. They had only three first-round picks over the previous six years. So when they begrudgingly traded James to Miami they insisted on two first-round picks back. They kept going from there, without fully knowing what they'd do with them.
Over the next three years, then-general manager Chris Grant traded for six first-round picks, five second-round picks and two pick swaps. Also, despite some temptation, the Cavs mostly refrained from offering big free-agent deals, and the few free agents they signed mostly were on short contracts.
The result was some bad teams, a combined 97-215 record over the past four seasons. But they did have a fairly clear salary cap, a roster stocked with young prospects on cheap contracts and a load of future draft picks to use in trades, including what ended up being the top overall pick in the Andrew Wiggins draft.
The lottery
The Cavs won the 2011 lottery with a 2.8 percent chance on a pick they got in a deadline-day deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. In 2013, they won with their pick when it had a 15.6 percent chance. In 2014, their pick won again with a 1.7 percent chance. What is the math on that? About a 0.05 percent to win all three or, put another way, about one chance in 1,900.
That's how they ended up with not only Kyrie Irving, but also Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, the heart of the deal that finally got the Wolves to relent on trading Love.
Just for perspective, add in winning the 2003 lottery when they drafted James with a 22.5 percent chance at the top pick, and the Cavs won the lottery four times in 12 years. The odds were 0.01 percent of the Cavs winning those four lotteries with the odds they were given. One hundredth of a percent.
Luck indeed.
The fall of the Heat
Within days of James' decision to sign with the Cavs the rumors of long-term conspiracies started popping up, especially in whispers out of Miami. As for James' intention to play for the Cavs again some day, that one was right out in the open. But the "when" part quickly became a debate.
However, it could have been no debate at all. Had the Heat won the NBA Finals to become one of the historic teams to three-peat, there is almost no doubt James would have returned for at least another season to attempt to win four in a row. Not to mention there's no sensible reason for a star player to walk away from the chance to defend a title; the historically conscious James never would've passed up a chance to do something that hadn't been done since Bill Russell and a feat neither Michael Jordan nor Kobe Bryant pulled off.
When the Heat and San Antonio Spurs were tied 1-1 in the NBA Finals and Miami had homecourt advantage heading into Game 3, the Cavs' dream scenario looked rather shaky. Especially with talks with the Wolves gaining no traction despite their No. 1 overall pick being in play.
Then the Spurs turned it on and the Heat withered as the Finals fizzled for Miami. When it was over so was the Heat's time as champs, and James, with free agency suddenly upon him, had a legitimate reason to consider other options.
Other suitors backed off
In theory, the Cavs could've made this same trade with the Wolves in June but they didn't. The reason: This exact deal wasn't being offered. The Cavs badly wanted to get Love in the fold by July 1 to help with pitching James on a return to Cleveland. But offering the past two No. 1 overall picks and a future first-rounder for Love, a player who could leave via free agency in a year, was light on guarantees. So the talks around the draft died.
In all, more than 12 teams reached out to the Wolves to make some sort of offer for Love. Some were non-starters, some were legit. The Golden State Warriors got the closest and could've removed the Cavs from the equation before they ever were able to make their best offer. But the Warriors and Wolves couldn't find a deal and neither could anyone else, buying the Cavs what turned out to be some extremely valuable time.
The James contract
In the hours after James released his letter to announce his return to Cleveland there was euphoria and insanity in the Cavs' offices. So many people called trying to buy tickets and sponsorships that the entire phone system crashed. James' agents, Rich Paul and Mark Termini, had trouble getting through just to start the process of negotiating the contract and it had to be hammered out using cell phones.
Ultimately, the process was short. James could name his terms. It was one year at the maximum salary followed by an option year at the max salary. This was unexpected -- the Cavs were thinking James would sign for longer, but they were willing to give him his terms. They had no problem paying him as much as possible and if doing it this way helped him get more money they were fine with it and willing to trust him.
By that Friday afternoon the paperwork was on its way to Florida to be signed by James before he took off for a promotional trip to Brazil for Nike.
Before that weekend, the Cavs had been reluctant to offer the rights to Wiggins in a deal for Love. While they offered packages involving the pick prior to the draft, they were excited about Wiggins after drafting him. They saw him as a wing with good defensive instincts they could pair with James if they got James in free agency.
If Love wanted to play with James, as had been communicated to the Cavs through various channels, the Cavs felt like they could wait for their dream big three and figure out a way to add Love via free agency in 2015. But with James only technically committed for one season and with his desire to play with Love as soon as possible made clear to the team, the priorities had changed quickly.
By the time James was back in the U.S. following a weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Wiggins had been put on the table. Within just a few days, a meeting between Love, Gilbert and other Cavs officials had been arranged with the permission of the Wolves. It was communicated that Love would not sign an extension or pick up his option for next season following a trade to the Cavs but that he was committed to playing alongside James for the long term.
Shortly thereafter the parameters of the deal for Love were essentially in place after talks that involved Gilbert and Wolves owner Glen Taylor. The Cavs had the pieces the Wolves wanted or were at least willing to take in a forced trade. Gilbert and the Cavs badly wanted to complete their big three and felt now was the time, making them willing to give just about anything if it didn't include Irving. James' strong statement with his contract and private talks to win over Love proved to be the final grease to the skids.
Everyone just had to wait for Wiggins to be eligible to be traded, 30 days after he signed his contract, even though he effectively had been traded before officially signing with the Cavs.
It has long been said that chance favors the prepared. Add these events to that file. The Cavs were prepared and received a remarkable string of fortunate events, none of which overshadowed that the best player in the league was born just down the road.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11386670/how-cleveland-cavaliers-landed-kevin-love
Frank Stallone
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The team roster with the player photos, etc. has removed Wiggins and Bennett and added Love. He in fact has the #0 below his name/photo.
seasoned vet
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dont underestimate dan gilbert.
remember that tampering case dan put under investigation?
"ahem, stern.... #1 picks, or else"
then that tampering case was never to be heard of again...
then before you know it, we land 3 of 4 #1 picks. thats not luck. thats, "DONT SHOOT! JUST TAKE THE MONEY!"
Cavsengland
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Frank Stallone
You guessed it...
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Haha fuck the Lakers and their salty ass fans!